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Lisbon’s São Jorge Castle is Portugal’s most visited monument

Lisbon’s iconic São Jorge Castle is the most visited monument in Portugal, having last year welcomed around 5,000 visitors a day, breaking all visitor records.

Figures released this week from the Directorate-General of Cultural Heritage, and monument management company EGEAC, show that last year, the hilltop castle overlooking Lisbon’s Baixa received a total of 1,777,480 visitors.In second place is the magical Pena Palace in Sintra, while the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon comes in at third, having welcomed just under 1,081,000 visitors last year.All three of Portugal’s most popular monuments now welcome well over one million visitors per year, and, should the steady growth that has been registered since 2010 continue, this year could see the monuments again set new records.For example, from 2015 to 2016, visitors to São Jorge Castle rose by 13 percent, and almost all of the visitors (94 percent) were foreigners. A report by EGEAC on visitors to Portugal’s monuments in 2016 shows that last year 106,888 Portuguese nationals visited the Castle, or six percent of the overall total, while all the remaining visitors – close to 1.7 million – were foreigners.Elsewhere in Portugal, Porto’s Clérigo’s Tower also smashed its own previous record last year, with 625,000 visitors, “an absolute new record”, EGEAC said, which is 25 percent up on 2015.In this particular instance foreign tourists also powered the boost, with 85 percent of visitors being foreign and 15 percent nationals.The only two monuments in Portugal that struggle to attract more visitors and enjoy only tepid growth are the National Museum of Costume and Fashion (Museu Nacional do Traje) and the Conimbriga Monographic Museum.

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